plebayo wrote:. He agreed she looks good and seems to be doing well even though her symptoms are back. She has a very healthy appetite and seems to be much more personable than she was before. I'm not sure if it's because I take her places more now, or simply that she's actually feeling better

THAT is the most important thing, isn't it??? Her quality of life seems to be excellent, considering what she's up against... you are doing an awesome job w/her.

Well it has been nearly a week since Sofie got her chemo. The sneezing is much less, she is still congested but not as bad as it was. I am going to talk to my boss about just using the doxo, until we no longer can [which... that might mean we only have one more dose], and maybe do one more round of carboplatin although I think I'd like to stay away from it if it isn't going to help with things.

On another note, my boss and I have a weird relationship. We both have very dry and sarcastic sense of humors, but I know when to be serious. Since we had the MRI done whenever I ask him questions about alternative methods to treating cancer he always says "Well, if you did radiation it would be curative." Well I know I have mentioned it before a client of ours has a cat with Lymphoblastic Lymphoma in his head, he has a tumor in his brain, behind his eye pushing on it, and in his nose. He completed $10,000 worth of Radiation treatment followed by chemo. The tumor shrunk in size and he started to eat. However, he came in Saturday not eating, he weighs less than the 6lbs he did before. He was practically flat until we poked him with fluids, we had to tube feed him. He was leaking some nasty diarrhea, the hair on his face fell off, the eye was still bulging. He looked HORRIBLE. I will not be surprised if he hasn't made it the weekend.

This puts it in my head even more that I would not perform radiation on my dogs head. If it was a leg or something, I can see it. But there is no way after seeing this cat that I would do this to my pet's face, not to mention the after effects which so far have not been positive.

Anyway Sofie seems about the same mentally, still really happy, still able to jump into the car and onto the bed!

My boss says that we should do at least another round of carboplatin. I guess we'll try it again, he thinks we should give it another shot. Sofie has 3 more doses left of doxo, her maximum she can have being 5. We'll see.

Well my lunch break at work is almost over but I wanted to update sofie's post.

Sofie is getting carboplatin chemo today. I hope, hope, hope she doesn't have a wicked reaction! She's doing really well other than she has started sneezing again. She seems to feel pretty happy she's eating and running around being a goober. She is still on a homemade diet and is doing well.

I'm dealing with a lot of stuff with my parents right now - my mom has congestive heart failure and she is not doing well. She was hospitilized because she gained 40lbs of water weight [go kaiser!] the meds are working now but she really isn't back to her old self and I'm not sure she is going to bounce back. She is 68, she had me when she was 46 which took a heavy toll on her heart, she was already diabetic at this point. I am only 22 and although I know you can never be ready for your mom to die, at 22 I feel like I still really need her around.

I'm so sorry to hear of you having to endure such difficult stuff at such a young age. I am only 23 and can't imagine going through what you are right now. You are a tough girl to be handling it so well. We are sending good vibes and thoughts from Oklahoma.

~Brittany, Degan and Harlow's mom

"It is true that Pit Bulls grab and hold on. But what they most often grab and refuse to let go of is your heart, not your arm."